Abstract

The design of a pulsed wavemeter to monitor the high-precision
tuning of pulsed (as well as cw) laser sources is
presented. This device is developed from a combination of
silver-coated Fabry–Perot etalons with various plate
spacings. These etalons provide stepwise refinement of the
wavelength to be measured. The wavemeter is controlled by a
computer through a CAMAC interface, which measures the absolute
wavelength in the visible with an accuracy of 2 parts in
108. The time required for data acquisition and
computation to measure the refined wavelength with a single 2-MHz CPU
is less than 100 ms. We describe the calibration of the instrument
over the wavelength range 400–850 nm. We obtain the required
calibration lines by locking lasers on hyperfine transitions of iodine,
uranium, rubidium, and cesium. Methods to reduce the number of
calibration lines required for calibration of the system are
described. The expected wavelength-dependent phase shift of the
silver coatings is compared with that measured for the etalon following
calibration. The differences are larger than expected because of
either optical aberations or the use of centroids to measure the fringe
position.

References

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